This invention relates in general to firearms and deals more particularly with an improved lock assembly for a firearm of conventional type having a receiver including a depending trigger guard and which has at least two ports which communicate with the interior of the receiver when a breech bolt contained within the receiver is in an open or retired position.
Heretofore, various locking devices have been available for securing locking firearms in safe condition. However, such devices have not gained general acceptance.
Responsible firearm manufacturers generally agree that a firearm should be stored in a locked condition, and in an effort to promote this practice, at least one manufacturer, O. F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, is presently providing a firearm lock unit with every gun it produces.
Attempts have been made to legislate gun safety, but unfortunately, well meaning, but often misguided legislators lacking understanding of firearms sometimes conclude that a single approach provides a panacea for all firearm safety problems. Thus, for example, at least one state has enacted legislation requiring trigger locks for all firearms.
The assignee of the present invention, a shotgun manufacturer, has concluded that the best approach to safely securing the type of shotgun that it manufactures is to lock the breech bolt of the gun in an open position. When the breech bolt of such a shotgun is open, the gun cannot be loaded. Further, every such shotgun is equipped with a trigger disconnecting mechanism which effectively disables the trigger so that it cannot operate the firing mechanism when the breech bolt is in a fully or partially opened condition. The open or partially open breech bolt also holds the hammer in a safe position so that it cannot possible move to striking position. Consequently, the firing mechanism of such a gun is totally disabled when the breech bolt is in either a fully or partially open position. The breech bolt must be moved to fully closed or battery position to free the hammer from the aforedescribed safe position and set the trigger to enable operation of the trigger mechanism which releases the firing mechanism. Thus, in a firearm of the aforedescribed type, optimum safety lockout may be attained by locking the breech bolt in an open position so that it cannot attain battery position. The provision of a trigger lock on a firearm of this type is redundant.
The statutory requirement for a trigger lock on a shotgun of the aforedescribed type may lead the gun owner to the erroneous conclusion that he has provided the optimum safeguard by locking the trigger in a disabled condition when, in fact, the firearm can be loaded and perhaps discharged, if mishandled, even in the presence of a locked trigger. The better approach to safeguarding a firearm of the aforedescribed type is to lock the breech bolt in an open condition as aforedescribed.
It should be noted that there are firearms of other types wherein a change in the position of the breech bolt may not alter the condition of either the trigger or firing mechanism. In a gun of the latter type, additional benefit may be derived from locking the trigger as well the breech bolt.
Accordingly, it is the general aim of the present invention to provide an improved lock assembly which provides optimum lockout safeguard for securing a firearm of the type with which the lock assembly may be appropriately employed, while satisfying all presently existing statutory requirements applicable to such a firearm.